Anodic Growth of Large-Diameter Multipodal TiO2 Nanotubes

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Arash Mohammadpour; Prashant R Waghmare; Sushanta K Mitra; Karthik Shankar

• We report on the formation of a new class of nanostructures, namely, multipodal hollow titania nanotubes possessing two or more legs, achieved during the electrochemical anodization of titanium in diethylene glycol (DEG)-based electrolytes. The unique multipodal porous structure is expected to extend and enhance the applications of TiO2 nanotube arrays. Multipodal nanotubes form by a process we term “nanotube combination”, which only occurs in viscous electrolytes at high anodization potentials in the presence of a low concentration of fluoride-bearing species. The mechanism of formation of multipodal nanotubes is considered, and the tube length at which nanotube combination occurs is predicted theoretically using a simplified analytical model. The results suggest that capillary forces strong enough to bend the TiO2 nanotubes by tens of degrees are generated during the imbibition of electrolyte into and out of the intertubular spaces between adjacent tapered nanotubes.

• Date created

  2010-10-02

• Subjects / Keywords

  • self-organization; tapered nanotubes; nanopores; nanofluidics; tetrapods; capillary forces; surface tension; dynamic contact angle

• Type of Item

  Article (Draft / Submitted)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/r3-kdvc-0e32

• License

  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International